Daily chess puzzle: Check Mate #10

Another puzzle from Dragoslav Andric’s 1981 book “Matni Udar”.

White to play and win

Morphy v Braunschweig, Paris 1858

Solution

The first moves are easy, and can be played on intuition: White gets at least 2 pawns for a piece, and Black’s king is open, and White is ahead in development. 1 Nb5 cb 2 Bb5+ Nbd7 (2…Kd8 is bound to be inferior, permitting e.g. 3 0-0-0+ followed by a Rd3 rook-lift).

3 O-O-O Rd8 4 Rd7! Rd7[] 5 Rd1

and in the game, Black permitted a typically pretty Paul Morphy finish:

5..Qe6 6 Bd7+ Nd7 7 Qb8+!! and 8 Rd8 mate.